The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms

When I was first learning how to breastfeed (because let’s face it, no one has any idea what that will be like until she starts!) I realized quite quickly that I needed to figure out how to store my breast milk for when I went back to work. At the same time, I wanted to keep up my regular feedings with my son. I really didn’t want to use formula, so I wasn’t up for swapping out a regular breastfeeding with a formula feeding in order to store my milk. I was very lucky in that I had about a four-month maternity leave, so I knew I had some time to figure it out.

But, in that new mom way, I was obsessed and had to find the answer as quickly as I could. I found myself trying every different kind of search possible on the internet, every book, La Leche League (I thought for sure I would find it there), even on the back of my awesome breast milk storage bags.

I was beyond frustrated to find out that this information was not to be found. I mean zero, nada, nothing, no where.

So this was one of the first articles I wanted to write for this site. I want moms to be able to have this information! I will share here what I did. I really hope it helps! I will also say that for many lucky women, it won’t be quite as challenging as it was for me. It turns out I had a very limited supply of milk. The most I was ever able to pump was five ounces, and that was when he was about six-months-old — the time he actually needed more like seven or eight ounces. So I hope most of you will have a much easier time!  Either way, I’m sure the below will help, as I still haven’t found tips for doing this anywhere else.

Here are the basics of feeding the baby, as far as quantity. Now, I’m no doctor, and of course you should check with yours first, but I know that this tends to be the general rule.  Also, every child is different and this is just an estimate. If your kid seems hungry, keep feeding him or her. No need to stop at two ounces of milk just because the child is two-months-old. If your baby is telling you he or she wants more, chances are you should pay attention to those signals.
For the first six months of life, give or take as every child is different, babies eat about every three hours, and a meal is usually the same number of ounces as months they are old. So, a one-month-old baby will usually have around an ounce of milk ever three hours. A two-month-old baby will have two ounces…and so on.  Once you introduce solid foods at around six months, this may vary a little bit, but the serving will be about the same.

As for actually storing the milk, it’s important to remember never to mix milk from different pumping sessions. The milk you get when you pump at 1:00am should go in one bag, and the milk from the 4:00am pump should go in another. Never mix them. The bags I liked the best are Lansinoh Breast Milk Storage Bags. (They’re not expensive either, around $8.00 for 50 bags.) You can write the date, and the amount on the bag before you put them in the freezer. They have great handling instructions on the back of the bags and the all important double ziplock. When you’re ready to thaw the milk you’ve stored, place it in lukewarm water about five minutes before the scheduled feeding. Right before the serving, put it into warmer water (never hot) so you can serve it at a temperature slightly higher than room temperature. If you will give the baby the milk within 48 hours of pumping it, you can simply put it in the refrigerator, no need to freeze it. However, if it will be longer than 48 hours, freeze the milk. You can store milk in the freezer for six months, more than enough time!

This is helpful information as you’re planning ahead for how much to store, how many meals you’ll need to leave for your baby and how many days you’ll need stored by the time you go back to work. It’s also helpful if you will have a weekend or day away from your baby and you want him or her to have breast milk while you’re gone. For my example, I knew I needed five meals of four ounces for my first day back at work. Then, I would pump those same meals while I was at work, so they would be ready for the next day, etc.

Once I started to understand this feeding stuff, I came up with a plan. As my milk was pretty low to begin with, I thought that pumping after every feeding might be a way to trigger my body to produce more milk. So that meant that after every feeding, I would pump. Yes, even at 1:00 and 4:00 am, I would stagger my exhausted body down the stairs and pump for 10 more minutes after my boy had fallen back asleep.  Sometimes I would get an extra ounce, sometimes I would only get ½ an ounce, but it was something.  If he seemed hungry after a feeding, at least I could supplement with this little bit. And I did that often. But because I was pumping after every feeding, my stored milk started to actually add up!

By the time he was about three-months-old, my little store of milk was doing pretty well. The 1:00am feeding had started to disappear, so after the 4:00am feeding, I could get as much as four ounces sometimes. I was tired, but it was working and that’s all I cared about.

Once I had to go back to work when he was four-months-old, I found creative ways to create his four ounce meals. Some consisted of two bags of two ounces, others were three bags: two one ounce bags and one bag of two ounces. But I didn’t care, the boy was getting fed, and I had done it. And once in a while, there was a single bag with four complete ounces!
So, that my friends, is what I did in order to keep my son on breast milk as long as I could. He didn’t taste formula until he was about five-months-old, when I just couldn’t produce enough. I was still feeding him until he would pull off, and then pumping whatever I could afterwards, but it just wasn’t enough. So that’s when we began to supplement with formula.

Sadly, my milk disappeared altogether when he was about seven-months-old, which was really hard for me. But the great news is that he was exclusively on breast milk until he was five-months-old and that’s not bad! My goal was to be able to breastfeed until he was nine-months-old, and well, that just didn’t happen. It was one of those mom moments where I just had to let go of what I wanted.

The good news is, that was my experience! Most everyone else will have a much easier time keeping the milk flowing. And I think that because I had such a hard time keeping my milk supply up, this idea of pumping after feedings will work even more effectively for most women.

I hope this helps! Congrats on your new little one and I wish you uninterrupted sleep soon!

Sarah

Sarah and Amy are the Better Way Moms, whose mission is to provide a fun and easy place for moms to remember that none of us is alone, all of us hit tough spots and really high points.

We were lucky enough to catch up with co-founder of Better Way Moms, Sarah Walton and she agreed to answer a few questions for The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms. Click here to read that interview.

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